If you meet someone who has never read any of Dean's books (maybe it's you), but they have heard of him, it’s probably from The Crime Scene Trilogy. The premise was that there are "three sides to every story". Dean explored the common murder mystery from three different angles - that of the victim, the killer, and the detective. Each part revolved around one of these characters with the most direct interaction between them occurring towards the end of each book, i.e. victim with killer, killer with victim, and detective with killer. The timelines for Parts 1 and 2 run parallel whereas Part 3 takes place after the murder. These books were relatively shorter than most of the King Bennett tales, but when you put all three together you got one book that was almost 370 pages long.

The Crime Scene Trilogy won the prestigious American Sleuth and Mystery Book Award for 1959. Its official release was within two days of the award's entry deadline for that year. This trilogy was also required reading in Briarton College's American Literature course from 1960-1986 and from 1990-Present. If you recall, Crime Scene was the pulp magazine that started Dean's writing career.

The book known as Part 1 centered its attention on the victim, Greta McMillan. Greta was a waitress at one of the local clubs. Much of the story has her going through her daily routine. Davis throws in his usual little tricks like having another waitress comment to Greta about a creepy customer at one of her tables. This customer was soon to be revealed as the killer.

Another one was having King Bennett come into the club and ask Greta if she has seen Frankie, the bartender. When Greta answers that Frankie won't be in for another hour, King asks her to have Frankie call him. He also mentions for Greta to tell Frankie that it's time to repay the favor. For those of you who have read Angel Tears, you'll remember the subplot that had Frankie in some pretty hot water until King bailed him out. Dean mentions, "While I was writing Angel Tears I started to conceptualize and outline The Crime Scene Trilogy. I set up the Frankie subplot in Tears so he could reappear in Parts 1, 2, and 3 of the trilogy." After these books Frankie would occasionally pop up in future Bennett mysteries.

The final chapters involve the horrible kidnapping and eventual killing of Greta, as viewed from her point of view. Even though I plan to read some of the King Bennett books a second time after I've completed the whole series, this would probably be one that I would skip. It was just too scary to try and finish that last chapter again.